


The gaze of the Pharaoh

by Halcyon_Storm



Category: Vampire: The Masquerade
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-13
Updated: 2020-02-13
Packaged: 2021-02-28 00:02:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22694473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Halcyon_Storm/pseuds/Halcyon_Storm
Summary: Character summary and backstory for Runihira Kamar, my character in Vampire: the Masquerade





	The gaze of the Pharaoh

The gaze of the Pharaoh

Runihira Kamar – Occult fanatic

Born in Alexandria, Egypt, Runihira Kamar lived a fairly average childhood. He lived with his parents and his older brother Darius in a fairly wealthy area of the city. He has a pet Blue Racer snake named Nagita, who he has always felt a closer connection to than his own family. Hours were spent every day mindlessly talking to the snake, hoping for a response, but nothing ever happened. Runihira’s parents, both highly educated, always encouraged Runihira to read more, although they weren’t too pleased when he took a particular liking to the occult genre of books. Stories about the supernatural, about werewolves and demons, and specifically vampires were his bread and butter, and before long he became an expert on such topics. He would talk the head off the shoulders of his friends and family about different kinds of creatures that supposedly roamed the streets at night. Obviously, nobody believed a word he said, but often they would play along just to make him happy.

Sometime during his late teenage years, occasionally the news would bring out stories of people disappearing without a trace under mysterious circumstances, never to be seen or heard from again. At first, this happened almost exclusively in the poorer areas of Egypt, which unfortunately meant many people did not care much for the disappearances. They either wrote it off as something that happens all the time in those areas, or it was simple too far away from their own lives that it was hard for them to care. Slowly but surely, however, the cases became more frequent, and came closer to the wealthier areas, and people started to be concerned. Runihira found some interesting parallels between the disappearances of people and the actions of a vampire cult who called themselves the “Followers of Set”; a clan of vampires who believe that the Egyptian god Set will one day return to earth to either rule it or destroy it, and through blood offerings and sacrifices they could please Set’s wishes until that return. As per usual, whenever he would bring this up to anyone, they discarded his theories as mere fantasy. For the following years, daily life continued as usual, with little attention paid to the disappearances. That is, until one day Runihira’s brother Darius did not come home from going out that night, and was reported as the next victim of these disappearances.

Blood sacrifice

That day when Darius went missing, everything changed in the Kamar household. His parents stopped going to work, and spent entire days on the phone with the police, or roaming the streets searching for their son. Runihira was told to stay inside for his own safety, and not to leave the house unless absolutely necessary. He obeyed these orders, but was far from willing to just let his parents deal with this on their own. Instead, his interest in the Followers of Set turned from a mere hobby into an actual investigation. He read books, browsed forums online, and looked for whatever information he could find on this group. Over the course of the next few weeks, he found sufficient evidence that the Followers of Set were a real group acting out these kidnappings, and that they would be holding a blood sacrifice on the first day of every month. These ceremonial rituals were meant to please the god Set by offering the blood of innocent people, which would grant them special treatment when Set would return. The next blood offering would be in a few days, which was Runihira’s chance to save his brother.

On the night of the blood sacrifice, he dressed himself like what he believed Followers of Set to look like, and looked for suspicious individuals in the many streets of Alexandria. Because of his extensive research, he was aware of the kinds of people to look out for, and before long he found himself surrounded by individuals of vampiric nature, all dressed in a robe displaying the symbol of the Followers. Beyond the crowd was an altar of sorts, draped in a white sheet. A large, intimidating man stood before the altar, his eyes looking like his snake’s, yellow and seemingly always gazing straight at you. Behind him were two cages. In the first, an older woman he did not recognize. She seemed beaten up and bruised, but not nearly as badly as the man in the other cage. There were scars, whiplashes and wounds all over his body, and his clothes had been ripped apart violently, leaving nothing but a few ragged pieces of cloth. Only then did he recognize this heavily wounded man as his brother Darius.

Runihira had brought a gun, with the purpose to create havoc so he could rescue his brother. He did not expect there to be multiple victims, nor did he anticipate the cages. From the looks of it the cages were securely locked, so he would just have to wait until the cages were opened to take his chance. Unfortunately, things panned out for the worst. The woman’s cage was opened first, and she was forced to move to the altar. Runihira went over all his options, but there was no way he could save this woman, and still be able to rescue Darius as well. He was forced to watch how the man at the altar, who announced himself as their leader, Pharaoh Arkhases IX, tied her to the altar in a way that left her facing the sky, but restrained so she couldn’t move. She was mildly struggling, but she appeared to be very dazed to a point where she barely had a grip on reality anymore. The Pharaoh ripped apart what little clothing she had left, revealing her chest, and with a fluid motion brought a blade up in the air and struck down into her chest, right at the heart. Runihira was paralyzed with fear and disgust, while the other attendees started chanting phrases he did not understand. They were celebrating this display of blood, as the life left the woman’s body. After they were done with her, the Pharaoh untied her now lifeless body and threw her disgracefully back into the cage. He moved on to open Darius’ cage, which was Runihira’s moment to strike.

The great escape

Runihira drew his gun, and shot one of the vampires in the head. This sudden event disrupted the crowd, and the undead spectators went running in all different directions. While running towards the altar, Runihira fired the rest of his shots into the crowd, creating even more chaos. He took the blade from the altar and rushed towards Pharaoh Arkhases, who had been unlocking the cage and only had a delayed reaction to the newly erupted chaos. Runihira struck with the blade and wounded the Pharaoh, who fell back away from the cage. He grabbed Darius, who seemed just as dazed as the other woman, and took off running. He clutched Darius’ scarred and undressed body in his arms, as his bound-up state wouldn’t allow him to walk on his own. They quickly made their way home, seemingly having shaken off whatever vampires decided to chase after him. He untied Darius, who at this point was a bit more conscious, though not entirely back yet. Darius explained how for the past weeks he had been tortured in a myriad of awful, inhumane ways that left him begging for death. He never expected to be saved, but was beyond thankful for Runihira’s bravery. Runihira, in turn, started rapidly packing his belongings, planning to leave the country as soon as possible out of fear of the Followers coming back for revenge. He suggested Darius do the same, and after exchanging goodbyes they left each other again.

Runihira immediately made for the airport, and took the next flight to the Netherlands. There were a few reasons why specifically he chose for the Netherlands, aside from it being one of the soonest flights to take. According to his research, vampiric activity in that area was considerably lower than in many other regions of the world, so it would be significantly safer for him to go there. Secondly, and far more importantly, he had a contact there who he could possibly stay with. For two years now, Runihira had been in a relationship with Elize Brunswick, a young woman attending a Dutch university. They had met in Egypt when she was on vacation, and stayed in close contact ever since. He feared being close together would threaten her safety, but at least for the time being it was better for him to be with someone he knew, instead of being all alone.

When he arrived in the city Elize lived, he messaged her to ask to meet somewhere discreetly. Once there, he explained everything to her. She was obviously shocked to suddenly see her boyfriend for the first time in forever, but even more so to hear all the things that had happened. At this point, Runihira had become positively paranoid of everyone and everything around him. They decided that living together would be far too dangerous, but they would meet up every now and then to see each other. Runihira also adopted the fake name Rohan Krause to further disguise himself.

Rohan and Reyna – the present

Runihira, now Rohan, spent most of the next week outside, staying out of sight and mind of everyone he could avoid. His only companion was his snake Nagita, who had somehow managed to sneak its way into his luggage before he left. One night he found himself in some woods, not quite large enough to call a forest, but it would suffice. He ended up falling asleep against a tree, only to be woken up hours later by a woman. She introduced herself as Reyna, a university student who spends a lot of her free hours growing her own plants at home, or looking in nature for what she called ‘ingredients’. It was pretty clear she was dealing in drugs and other hallucinogenic plants. She offered him to join her back home so he could have at least a good night’s rest, since the woods could get ‘pretty nasty’ at night. He felt some kind of connection to her, a sense of safety and security, and Nagita seemed to share that sentiment. Though wary, he took her up on the offer, and together they went to her apartment.

Reyna’s apartment was a sight to behold. The room was mostly dark, with the only light coming from some neon lamps on the walls, and apparently also from some luminescent plants she was growing. Her entire room was covered from wall to wall with plants and gardening tools, but not in a messy way. In fact, her room was somehow very clean and spacious, making for a pleasant living space. Though Rohan’s full intentions were to spend only a single night at her place, the two got along so well that they ended up staying together as roommates for the foreseeable future.

While he never told Reyna everything about his past, throughout the weeks she was able to piece together that he was here to hide away from something or someone. She suggested he attend some of the university classes, to blend in with the large population of students in the area. Introducing himself as an Egyptian exchange student, he somehow managed to sneak his way in without any official documents, and became a semi-regular scholar. Currently, he spends his days attending classes in various fields, helping out Reyna with her plant-business, all while still being wary of the potential threat of vampire revenge. He is still in contact with Elize, although she has become a bit more distant now that Rohan chose to live together with another girl. He and Darius occasionally exchange letters, from which he learned that Darius did indeed move away to Brazil, where he now lives by himself. Things seem to be going well for him, all things considered.


End file.
